Oculus splits into mobile and PC VR gaming divisions

Facebook-owned virtual reality hardware company Oculus is undergoing a divide into two distinct divisions, mobile and PC, with former CEO Brendan Iribe stepping down to take command of just the PC group.

“Looking ahead and thinking about where I’m most passionate, I’ve decided to lead the PC VR group—pushing the state of VR forward with Rift, research and computer vision,” states Iribe in a blog post published on December the 13th.

“As we’ve grown, I really missed the deep, day-to-day involvement in building a brand new product on the leading edge of technology.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft veteran Jon Thomason is moving from head of software at the company to run the mobile division. The top position — CEO — is now vacant, with Iribe noting that he, Thomason and Mike Schroepfer, chief technical officer of Facebook, will work together to find a new overarching leader.

“You do your best work when you love what you’re working on,” writes Iribe, adding: “If that’s not the case, you need to make a change. With this new role, I can dive back into engineering and product development. That’s what gets me up every day, inspired to run to work.”

PC VR is always going to be in the low numbers, compared to mobile. The price difference between mobile and PC versions is too high right now. That is why Microsoft recently announced cheaper VR headsets to work with their Holographics platform, and will arriving in 2017. They are looking at starting prices of around $300 for a VR headset.

As it stands today there is already a number of mobile platforms. Gear VR with Oculus support, Google’s Cardboard, and now their updated version of Cardboard called Daydream. Not to mention there is other third party VR and MR platforms.

I think the best method would be a VR headset that has two displays with built in headset tracking sensors, like an accelerometer and gyroscope, as well as a few input buttons or track pad. Something like LG’s 360 VR headset. Something along those lines that plugs into any USB-C device with USB 3.1 transfer speeds. That is where LG’s 360 VR headset failed, well that and a lower resolution 920×720 display per eye. LG’s headset only supported USB 3.0 speed, instead of USB 3.1 speed. This has an advantage as well. Your phone can use a low resolution display, and the headset can have the much higher resolution display, which is clearly needed and warranted for VR.